Quote from: minor-transgression on March 04, 2016, 10:44:51 PM

An ongoing court case centering on encryption has thrown light upon the total incompetence
of those in power. And this is not just about the USA and its legal system, it calls into
question the fitness for purpose of every government currently in place.

First, understand that without privacy, there can be no private property...

Now you understand why MA says we may descend into a 600 year Dark Age, if we don't find some way to overthrow the current political structure.

Quote from: TPTB_need_war on March 06, 2016, 01:55:31 AM

Sometimes we need to be reminded what top-down control does:

Quote from: https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/chinas-deserts-expanding/

Chinas Deserts Expanding

According to statistics released by the State Forestry Administration, China has 2.6 million square km of desert that accounts for 27 percent of the countrys total land area. The desert areas are scattered among 12 provincial-level regions in north China. There is a serious problem on the horizon for China. Following the creation of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the Communist State attempted to alter nature. Chinas forests were cut down and used for fuel, lumber, and paper production for the billions of little red books that became rather notorious. This process increased during the 1960s and had the tendency to eliminate both forests and grasslands. This led to a sharp rise in the rate of desertification.

Realizing its mistake, the government saw the desert areas expanding and embarked on an effort to reverse the damage by trying to the create a reforestation effort in 1978. They actually planted 66 billion trees. This became known as the Green Wall of China, which was to be completed by 2050.

However, while the intentions were good, the bottom-line result has been devastating. The government introduced fast-growing pine and poplar trees that were not native to the region. These trees needed more water and sucked the region dry. The water table in the soil dropped nearly 10 fold and most of the trees died. Only about 15% of the trees planted since 1949 have survived. Their attempt to reverse the trend had the exact opposite impact. Instead of creating a forest, it expanded the desert. China now has the second largest desert in the world the Taklimakan desert.

This presents a political risk for the future as China is squeezed by the expanding desert.

Other threads are noticing this effect:

Quote from: cryptohunter on March 06, 2016, 12:19:04 AM

What caused Bitshares to lose it's shine?

I've not heard much about that project lately?

Was very popular not long ago?

Quote from: BitCoinDream on March 05, 2016, 06:03:37 PM

To everyone converting BTC to ETH

Read a little about history of NXT, while jumping ship to ETH as a store of value. Compare the following two graphs...

a. http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/#charts

b. http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/nxt/#charts

Compare the following facts...

i. NXT was backed by a centralized organization, just like ETH.

ii. NXT was PoS, just like ETH will ultimately be.

iii. NXT offered asset exchange, while ETH offers smart contract. Both of these functionality, which they claim to make them unique, are actually possible on bitcoin blockchain, which is far more secure.

iv. With price rise, NXT backers sold their holding to increase liquidity in the market. With price rise, ETH backers are increasing ETH supply in the market to increase liquidity in the market.

p.s. Alt coin trading is a gambling. If u wanna test your luck on some coin under pump, its fine. But, make sure to come back to BTC, when u have made enough, otherwise u'll lose all and have to be a mute spectator while the next alt wave hits. GooD Luck Wink

Quote from: TPTB_need_war on March 03, 2016, 04:46:37 PM

Re: Proof that Proof of Stake is either extremely vulnerable or totally centralised

Quote from: stdset on March 03, 2016, 04:43:29 PM

max reorg depth in NXT is 720 blocks

[Proof-of-stake] Checkpoints are centralization.

Quote from: TPTB_need_war on March 03, 2016, 03:41:19 PM

For a centralized coin, then anything works, you don't even need PoS nor PoW (except to fool people with).

If we don't have decentralization, then the entire plot has been lost.

Do you need an example? Here you go (remember the Chinese mining cartel allegedly controls 65% of the Bitcoin hashrate):

https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/48nnaw/the_truth_comes_out_core_devs_have_convinced/